Reconstruction 
In  West  Africa 


A GATHERING  TOGETHER 
OF  THE 

Reports  of  the  West 
Africa  Mission 

FROM 

May  1,  1916  — April  30,  1917 


Revised  September,  1917 


Board  of  Foreign  Missions 
of  the  Presbyterian  Church 
in  the  L).  S.  A. 

156  FIFTH  AVENUE,  NEW  YORK  CITY 


At  a Conference  between  Prot- 
estant Mission  Boards  at  work  in 
Kamerun,  W.  Africa,  July,  1914,  the 
following  agreement  as  to  division  of 
territory  was  agreed  upon: 

1.  The  Presbyterian  Mission  to  occupy 
the  territory  outlined  in  its  report,  includ- 
ing the  Yebekole  work,  and  the  Abong- 
mbang  Road  so  as  to  connect  with  Lomie. 

2.  The  Gossner  Mission  to  take  the  field 
south  of  the  Sanaga  River,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  the  Yebekole  work  and  the  Nyong 
strip  of  our  work  beyond  Yebekole  to 
Abongmbang.  Their  beginning  will  be  at 
Semini  and  to  go  east  and  include  Bertuga. 

3.  The  Baptist  Mission  will  hold  to  the 
field  now  occupied  at  the  Coast  and  toward 
the  northeast,  also  the  field  around  Ngila, 
north  of  Yuande,  also  a strip  from  Nyanv 
tang,  and  the  work  near  it  to  Ngila 
(Ndumba),  so  as  to  keep  their  communica- 
tion open  and  provide  for  occupation  of  the 
territory  lying  in  between. 

4.  The  Basle  Mission  will  expand  pri- 
marily toward  the  north  and  northeast,  and 
also  plan  advance  toward  Yetong  with  a 
view  to  future  occupation. 

It  was  also  agreed  that,  at  present,  work 
at  Yuande  itself  is  not  feasible  or  possible, 
but  that  each  mission  advance  toward  it  as 
rapidly  as  possible. 

This  agreement  was  made  just  a 
few  weeks  before  the  outbreak  of  the 
European  War.  Now,  after  three 
years  of  war,  the  Mission  of  the  Pres- 
byterian Church  is  the  only  one  at 
work  in  this  territory  and  the  mis- 
sionaries are  caring  not  only  for  their 
own  work,  but  the  work  of  the  Goss- 
ner, Basle  and  German  Baptists  as 
far  as  the  men  and  means  will  allow. 

See  Addendum— p.  13. 


BENITO 

Benito,  during  the  two  years  of  the  War 
before  the  occupation  of  the  Cameroun  dis- 
trict by  the  French,  was  the  medium 
through  which  came  the  necessities  of  food 
for  the  Interior  stations,  and  sometimes  the 
mail  was  also  sent,  but  not  often.  For  the 
past  seven  or  eight  months,  owing  to  War 
regulations,  intercourse  with  the  interior 
has  been  cut  off.  But  the  missionaries  have 
found  open  doors  in  other  directions,  as  will 
be  seen  by  the  following  from  one  of  the 
force  at  this  station  in  Spanish  Guinea: 

“For  years  we  at  Benito  have  been  try- 
ing to  establish  a work  among  the  Fan  on 
the  Benito  river.  Nothing  permanent  had 
been  accomplished  until  August  of  last  year 
when  I undertook  with  the  aid  of  the  theo- 
logical class  which  was  at  that  time  at 
Benito  to  do  a follow-up  work  in  three 
centers,  each  center  about  three  hours’  walk 
from  here.  The  closing  of  communication 
between  the  two  colonies  in  December,  1916, 
kept  part  of  the  theological  class  here  and 
one  of  these  young  men  who  has  a good 
command  of  the  tongue  has  been  working 
altogether  among  the  Fan.  The  work  has 
been  extended  till  it  includes  over  six  cen- 
ters now,  with  some  towns  of  Mabeya  also. 
Hardly  a week  goes  by  without  some  one  in 
these  towns  confessing  Christ.  We  have 
now  30  members  in  the  catechumen  class 
from  seven  villages. 


1 


“About  a month  ago  I was  accorded  safe 
conduct  by  a chief  who  lives  about  six  miles 
away  and  who  has  recently  confessed  Chi'ist 
and  so  I went  with  him.  We  walked  fi'om 
daylight  until  six  P.  M.,  and  l'eached  a 
town  of  about  350  people.  As  fi'iendships 
are  established  here,  the  woi'k  can  be  cai- 
l'ied  on  farther  into  the  intei’ior.  Indeed, 
just  a few  days  ago  I had  a delegation  from 
the  interior,  three  days  away,  wanting  me 
to  go  with  them  because  the  chief  had  heard 
me  preach  at  Akutenam.” 


Mustered  into  the  Army 


BATANGA 


The  work  at  Batanga  station  has  been 
sadly  crippled  by  the  War  and  was  entirely 
broken  up  for  more  than  a year.  Our  people 
were  scattered,  some  at  the  Concentration 
Camps  near  Fulasi,  and  some  in  Spanish 
Guinea  or  in  Refugee  Camps  on  the  Campo, 
but  the  greater  number  on  the  various 
plantations  near  Victoria.  Their  personal 
effects  were  confiscated  wherever  found. 
Many  of  their  villages  were  looted,  and 
some  partially  or  even  wholly  destroyed. 
Many  gardens  were  ruined  and  the  long 
neglect  resulted  in  serious  damage  to 
houses  and  gardens  even  where  they  had 
not  been  molested.  Many  were  killed  and 
hundreds  died  of  starvation  and  disease.  It 
has  been  estimated  that  the  entire  number 
of  Mabeya  has  been  reduced  one-third. 

Some  escaped  to  the  Bush  and  lived  like 
hunted  animals  for  months  before  they  were 
able  to  reach  safety  on  the  Spanish  border. 
One  of  the  Bible  readers  was  thus  in  hiding 
for  four  months.  His  wife  became  separated 
from  him  and  was  not  found  until  two 
months  later,  soon  after  which  she  died. 
Fifty-one  persons  of  Makawomi,  a prosper- 
ous village  near  Kribi  and  our  best  centre 
among  the  Mabeya,  died  during  the  War. 
The  death  roll  of  the  Kribi  church  numbers 
40,  probably,  and  that  of  Batanga  church  is 
equally  large  though  the  exact  figures  are 
not  available.  More  than  200  fresh  graves 
were  filled  in  Kribi  while  the  refugees  were 
there  during  December-February,  1914-15. 
Food  was  entirely  inadequate  and  the  people 
suffered  terribly.  Those  who  survived  were 
pitiably  gaunt  and  emaciated. 

Once  safely  out  of  the  reach  of  hostilities 
our  people  fared  much  better,  especially 
those  who  went  to  Victoria,  though  even 
there  they  suffered  from  the  cold,  the  tem- 
perature falling  lower  there  than  here 
(Batanga)  and  there  were  numerous  deaths. 

3 


There  was  no  scarcity  of  food  at  the  plan- 
tation, however. 

As  soon  as  the  War  in  Kamerun  was 
practically  at  an  end,  the  occupation  of 
Batanga  station  was  authorized  by  the 
Commander  of  the  Allied  Forces,  and  the 
natives  were  allowed  to  return  to  their 
villages  though  the  lack  of  transportation 
facilities  made  the  return  of  those  at  Vic- 
toria a slow  process  extending  over  a period 
of  more  than  three  months. 

During  the  interval  between  the  change 
of  governments,  the  people  from  the  villages 
not  far  from  the  coast  came  down  to  Kribi 
and  Batanga  for  loot.  Our  houses  were 
pretty  thoroughly  stripped.  Valuable  mat- 
tresses were  destroyed  to  obtain  the  few 
yards  of  cloth  covering  them.  The  timely 
arrival  of  one  of  the  missionaries  checked 
them  before  they  had  quite  finished  their 
work  and  he  succeeded  in  recovering  a great 
deal  of  the  stolen  goods,  but  the  losses  were 
serious.  When  the  missionaries  finally 
returned  to  the  station,  February,  1916,  they 
found  the  grounds  were  badly  overgrown 
and  a number  of  the  buildings  sadly  in  need 
of  repair.  The  work  of  rehabilitation  is  a 
task  of  such  magnitude  that  even  yet  a 
great  deal  remains  to  be  done,  though  the 
work  of  clearing  up  has  been  pushed  as 
rapidly  as  the  difficulty  of  obtaining  work- 
men and  of  feeding  them  would  permit,  be- 
cause of  the  danger  of  an  epidemic  of 
dysentery. 

When  the  Germans  left  the  Kameruns 
they  took  a large  number  of  native  carriers. 
These  returned  via  Campo,  and  about  30,000 
crossed  the  river,  most  of  them  passing 
through  our  station  grounds  en  route  to 
their  homes.  No  estimate  was  made  of  the 
hundreds  of  those  who  died  along  the  road, 
chiefly  of  starvation,  but  very  many  from 
dysentery.  The  needs  of  these  thousands 
as  well  as  the  needs  of  many  of  the  Batanga 
people  who  returned  to  their  homes  ill,  fur- 
4 


nished  exceptionally  large  opportunities  for 
medical  work.  Nearly  all  the  medicines, 
however,  had  been  commandeered  or  other- 
wise removed,  but  a small  supply  of  neces- 
saries was  gathered  together  from  various 
sources. 

Addendum. 

THE  NEW  LANGUAGE  REQUIREMENTS 

A missionary  writes: 

On  the  French  Government  expressing  a 
desire  recently  that  the  French  language 
should  begin  to  be  taught  at  once,  a small 
class  of  nineteen  former  school  teachers 
was  organized,  representatives  of  our  dif- 
ferent stations,  and  the  work  of  instructing 
them  in  French  was  begun  at  Batanga  the 
latter  part  of  last  year. 

That  class  has  now  broadened  out  into 
a class  of  228  pupils  and  is  being 
carried  on  at  this  station,  five  miles 
from  Batanga  on  the  sea  coast.  One 
hundred  and  forty-four  of  these  young 
men  are  picked  representatives  from  our 
different  stations  who  have  formerly  been 
teachers  and  whom  we  expect  to  again  re- 
sume that  occupation,  while  84  are  boys  and 
young  men  from  the  vicinity  of  this  station 
who  are  graduates  either  of  our  Bulu  or 
our  German  schools.  They  are  to  be  the 
vanguard  of  the  French  speaking  force  in 
our  Mission. 

In  addition  to  these  228  young  men  who 
are  studying  French  we  have  a vernacular 
school  of  some  253  boys  and  young  men  and 
a flourishing  girls’  school  with  some  105 
girls  and  young  women.  Then  there  is  a 
class  of  eight  Local  Evangelists  here  who 
are  receiving  special  instruction  for  three 
months  at  the  request  of  Presbytery.  In 
addition  to  these  we  had  20  village  schools 
scattered  throughout  the  large  district  that 
this  station  is  responsible  for,  and  these 
had  an  attendance  of  1336  pupils. 


All  this  means  that  there  are  close  to 
600  persons  of  both  sexes  and  all  ages  who 
are  at  present  studying,  and  some  1300  in 
the  village  schools.  I am  not  sure  that  we 
reached  such  numbers  even  when  peace  pre- 
vailed. 

The  offerings  of  the  three  churches  at  the 
station  and  two  outposts  amounted  to  ‘$1622 
and  came  from  the  deep  poverty  of  the  peo- 
ple, for  the  working  man’s  wage  is  but  the 
equivalent  of  six  cents  a day.  Then  there 
have  been  1000  confessions  of  Christ  in 
seven  months’  time,  which  would  surely  in- 
dicate that,  although  these  people  are  now 
without  their  regular  shepherds,  yet  the 
Great  Shepherd  of  the  sheep  has  not  for- 
gotten them  in  their  time  of  need.  In  my 
twenty-one  years’  experience  in  this  mis- 
sion, I have  never  seen  greater  poverty  on 
the  part  of  the  people  than  there  is  at 
present.  The  freedom  from  the  ordinary 
aims  and  ambitions  of  their  lives  seems  to 
have  left  them  free  to  think  upon  spiritual 
truths  and  their  meditation  has  resulted  in 
action. 


EFULEN 


Efulen  station  was  closed  from  September 
26,  1915-February  1,  1916,  and  none  of  the 
members  who  were  here  previous  to  that 
time  are  here  now  so  this  report  will  be  a 
mere  sketch  of  conditions  and  the  gathering 
up  of  loose  ends. — (Mrs.  Weber.) 

The  station  and  grounds  were  very  well 
cared  for  by  the  temporary  occupants,  dur- 
ing the  period  of  requisition.  The  only 
serious  loss  was  in  the  Medical  Department 
as  a dog  locked  in  the  dispensary  was  for- 
gotten and  in  its  fury  destroyed  the  larger 
amount  of  medicines  left  there,  by  knocking 
the  bottles  to  the  cement  floor,  gnawing  at 
the  window  frames  and  chewing  up  the 
medical  books.  He  should  be  a well  in- 
formed pup  if  he  digested  all  of  the  informa- 
tion he  chewed.  It  took  some  weeks  to  get 
in  running  order  again.  There  has  been  no 
lack  of  patients,  but  they  could  not  all  be 
cared  for  because  of  the  lack  of  supplies 
and  instruments.  The  hospital  beds  which 
had  been  carried  away  and  burned,  have 
been  replaced  by  others. 

The  work  of  the  Church  has  necessarily 
been  interrupted.  Many  of  the  Bible  readers 
were  called  in  when  the  Mission  was  ordered 
to  leave  the  station  in  September.  No 
communion  service  was  held  from  July, 
1915,  until  January,  1916.  While  many  of 
the  Christians  fell  because  of  the  tempta- 
I tions  of  the  time,  the  marvel  is  that  more 
of  them  did  not  fall  when  we  consider  that 
the  missionaries  were  taken  away  from 
them  for  such  a long  and  trying  time.  The 
licentiates  in  charge  of  the  Zingi  and 
t Alum  churches  met  the  responsibility  thrust 
upon  them  with  courage  and  wisdom  realiz- 


ing  as  never  before  their  dependence  upon 
God.  Several  of  the  other  Bible  readers 
stood  firm  and  did  a noble  work  in  caring 
for  the  flocks  under  their  charge.  One  of 
the  Bible  readers  was  shot  and  killed  by 
soldiers.  There  are  now  three  young  men 
studying  for  the  ministry  and  ten  others 
from  the  three  churches  have  expressed  a 
desire  to  study,  some  of  whom  have  been 
accepted  by  the  Presbytery. 

The  school  work  has  been  unsettled, 
partly  because  of  the  lack  of  school  mate- 
rials. When  the  schools  were  again  started 
and  the  boys  found  out  that  there  was  to  be 
no  English  taught,  a number  of  them  from 
Efulen,  towards  the  beach,  refused  to  come 
to  school. 

In  spite  of  the  spirit  of  lawlessness  and 
the  unfriendliness  of  those  who  have  ever 
looked  upon  the  Mission  as  the  enemy  of 
their  plans  and  desires,  the  majority  of  the 
people  are  very  glad  to  have  the  Mission  at 
work  again,  and  things  are  much  more  en- 
couraging than  it  was  supposed  would  be 
possible  after  such  a disturbing  influence  as 
war. 


Addendum. 


THE  HARVEST  AT  EFULEN 

The  later  news  from  Efulen  from  Dr. 
Weber’s  pen  is  most  cheering: 

Our  work  goes  gloriously  forward.  Mrs. 
Weber  and  I are  alone  at  Efulen  since  the 
Evans  left  for  home.  The  work  is  rather 
strenuous,  but  ten  to  fifteen  grains  of  qui- 
nine per  day  keeps  us  up  and  doing.  The 
medical  work  presses  rather  hard,  not  to 
mention  the  responsibility  of  the  Church, 
with  its  details  and  preaching,  and,  too,  the 
gathering  of  materials  for  a new  church 
building,  and  a bunch  of  other  things  that 


might  be  mentioned.  But  I am  happy  be- 
yond all  words  to  express  my  thankfulness 
that  we  have  a work  to  do  with  our  Lord. 

The  rather  new  departure  at  Efulen  of 
the  people  going  out  without  pay  and  gath- 
ering in  the  harvest  of  souls  which  is  so  ripe 
is  yielding  a splendid  fruitage.  At  Efulen 
alone  in  the  last  six  weeks  (letter  written 
June  15,  1917)  there  have  been  229  confes- 
sors, or  at  the  rate  of  38  per  week.  I am 
praying  that  the  Mission  as  a whole  will 
adopt  this  method  of  work.  This  is  what 
has  made  Korea  go  to  the  front  and, 
although  our  people  have  done  it  in  a loose 
way,  yet  it  should  receive  support  of  the 
Ministry  as  a whole.  True,  it  creates  work, 
but  truer  still  it  makes  converts  and  reaches 
those  really  untouched  heretofore.  There  is 
a spirit  of  work  and  zeal  at  Efulen  that 
never  has  been  there  since  the  very  early 
days  when  the  Christians  were  doing  this 
sort  of  thing,  before  the  regularly  paid 
evangelists  came  into  being.  Many  a good 
man  was  ruined  when  the  miserable  pay 
system  was  put  in.  Others  got  greedy  and 
wouldn’t  work  because  they  couldn’t  draw 
some  coin  for  it.  Last  Sunday  (Letter  writ- 
ten June  15,  1917)  the  Alum  congregation 
pledged  3465  days’  work  to  the  Lord. 
Efulen’s  pledge  is  5995  days.  That  means 
Souls. 


SO  MANY  SICK 

We  are  the  most  important  people  on  the 
hill,  being  the  only  white  contingent.  The 
sick  people  have  spread  out  all  over  the 
hill,  there  are  so  many  of  them.  The 
women  from  Elat  are  occupying  the  Girls’ 
dormitory,  where  we  have  had  no  girls  for 
several  terms.  The  married  people’s  town 
is  full  and  not  only  the  new  hospital  but 
the  old  one  as  well,  which  is  a disgrace 
even  to  an  uncivilized  land.  I feel  so  sorry 
9 


for  the  poor  Ntum  women  who  are  in  it. 
The  patients  are  stacked  and  packed,  and 
another  long  building  must  be  erected  to 
accommodate  the  poor  creatures.  I don’t 
know  where  the  money  for  the  last  budding 
is  coming  from,  but  that  is  the  Lord’s  busi- 
ness, for  I don’t  believe  He  would  turn  them 
away  and  I don’t  see  how  I can. 

Just  tonight  as  I had  finished  a meeting 
with  about  thirty  personal  workers,  a 
woman  too  awful  to  describe  was  “passed” 
up  and  laid  at  the  dispensary  door.  She 
was  started  from  her  town  more  than  sev- 
enty miles  away,  the  women  of  one  town 
carrying  her  to  the  next  and  putting  her 
down  in  the  street  of  that  town,  then  the 
women  there  taking  her  up  and  carrying 
her  to  the  next,  and  so  on,  until  the  women 
from  the  last  town  at  the  foot  of  Efulen 
Hill  deposited  the  “unwelcome,  unfortunate, 
helpless  sick  thing”  on  us.  It  was  not  a 
question  of  there  being  no  place  in  the  inn, 
there  wasn’t  even  a bed  for  her,  for  every 
one  had  already  from  two  to  five  on  it;  so 
I just  cleaned  a place  between  two  beds  in 
the  fireplace  and  put  her  there. 

The  absolutely  only  attractive  thing  about 
this  awful  mass  of  corruption  is  that  there 
resides  a precious  soul  for  whom  our  Savi- 
our died.  Of  course,  we  took  her  in. 
Wouldn’t  you? 

You  will  rejoice  with  us  that  eighty-four 
per  cent,  of  the  non-Christian  patients  ac- 
cepted Christ  as  their  Saviour  before  leav- 
ing for  their  home  towns.  Money  could  not 
induce  me  to  deal  with  some  of  these  inde- 
scribable cases  that  come  here,  but  we  do 
it  for  Him  and  to  win  them  to  Him,  and  I 
wouldn’t  change  places  with  any  one  in  this 
world. 


10 


LOLODORF 


In  spite  of  the  low-hanging  war-clouds, 
MAC  LEAN  Station  (LOLODORF)  has 
closed  one  of  the  best  years  in  its  history  in 
point  of  increase  in  attendance,  accessions 
and  offerings.  Not  a single  item  of  last 
year’s  report  but  what  has  been  surpassed 
this  year  and  that  in  a time  when  the  con- 
trary might  have  been  expected.  During 
the  dark  days  of  the  latter  part  of  the 
War  in  this  Colony,  men’s  minds  and  hearts 
were  turned  towards  the  Gospel  as  never 
before,  and  although  with  the  reopening  of 
commerce  and  intercourse  some  will  again 
be  drawn  away,  the  time  of  heart-searching 
• will  not  be  entirely  forgotten  and  some  will 
have  made  pledges  from  which  they  will 
not  retract,  though  external  conditions  may 
materially  change. 

Ten  evangelistic  points  have  been  con- 
tinuously occupied  for  the  entire  year  with 
the  exception  of  three  which  closed  down  for 
a month  during  the  change  of  Government. 
The  average  attendance  at  the  station 
church  was  668  as  against  577  of  the  year 
before,  and  at  the  district  preaching  points 
the  combined  attendance  for  any  Sunday 
was  1594  a gain  of  269.  An  average  of 
1644  on  communion  Sundays  for  the  station 
church  was  a gain  of  240  over  the  previous 
year;  while  the  high-water  mark  for  com- 
munion attendance  was  in  October,  1915,  in 
the  district  of  the  Lolodorf  church,  when 
2015  were  present.  Mongale  church,  the 
oldest  child  of  the  Lolodorf  church  has 
become  a lusty  youngster  and  reports  an 
average  attendance  of  400,  and  the  average 
of  the  five  communion  points  including 
Mengale  was  1438. 

Lam  church  with  its  11  evangelistic  points 
had  a combined  average  Sunday  attendance 
of  1609  and  an  average  communion  attend- 
ance of  1052. 


11 


For  the  three  churches  there  has  been  a 
gain  in  average  attendance  of  1047  which 
means  that  over  a thousand  more  people 
come  every  Sunday  to  hear  the  Word 
of  God. 

The  growth  of  contributions  has  been 
amazing  and  hard  of  explanation,  though 
not  confined  to  Mac  Lean  Station.  It  may 
be  partially  explained  that  there  was 
no  outlet  for  the  purchase  of  anything, 
and  so  more  was  given  for  religious  pur- 
poses, but  this  does  not  explain  all.  There 
seemed  to  be  a sudden  increase  in  the  spirit 
of  giving,  regular  contributors  voluntarily 
increasing  and  doubling  their  pledges,  and 
this  without  undue  pressure.  There  was  a 
time  just  at  the  close  of  1915  when  the  six 
months’  collections  were  practically  the 
same  as  those  of  12  months  previous  to 
that  period. 

The  educational  and  medical  work  was 
carried  on  successfully  in  spite  of  the 
troubled  condition  of  the  country. 

The  policy  of  Mac  Lean  Station  is  to  cut 
a new  garden  every  dry  season  and  this 
has  been  followed  even  in  the  days  when 
no  one  could  say  that  we  might  not  be  moved 
in  24  hours.  Mac  Lean’s  food  gardens  are 
justly  famous  and  are  self-supporting  and 
more.  They  meet  a real  need  as  well. 
At  present  the  249  Bible  readers  with  about 
80  of  their  wives  who  are  present,  would 
find  it  almost  impossible  to  gather  at 
Mac  Lean  were  it  not  that  the  great  bulk 
of  food  comes  from  the  Mission  gardens, 
as  food  in  the  surrounding  towns  is  of  high 
price  and  not  too  plentiful.  The  Bible 
readers’  Class,  the  Girls'  School,  the 
workmen  on  the  place,  the  hospital  patients 
and  other  helpers  are  being  fed,  not  far 
from  500  persons  a day.  Two-thirds  to 
three-fourths  of  the  food  comes  from  the 
Mission  gardens. 

12 


Addendum. 


THE  BASLE  MISSION  AMONG  THE 
MVELE 

When  the  Basle  Mission  was  compelled 
on  account  of  War  conditions  to  leave  their 
work  in  the  Cameroun  district  of  West 
Africa,  it  fell  to  the  lot  of  one  of  the  mis- 
sionaries of  the  Lolodorf  Station  to  look 
after  this  work  in  the  Mvele  country  where 
the  Basle  missionaries  had  been.  He  writes: 

The  nearest  town  of  that  tribe  is  about 
24  miles  to  the  north  of  us,  half  of  which 
distance  is  through  a large  forest  without 
a single  village  to  break  the  vastness  of 
the  solitude.  The  only  ones  we  have  been 
able  so  far  to  send  are  six  school  boy  evan- 
gelists. Not  having  the  oversight  and  help 
of  a missionary,  some  of  the  members  of 
the  mission  churches  had  lapsed,  but  were 
very  glad  to  have  the  missionary  help  them 
to  straighten  up  again.  Out  of  154  church 
members  whom  I examined,  two-thirds  of 
them  were  not  in  a condition  to  enter  the 
church  in  good  standing.  Just  before  the 
Basle  missionaries  left  the  field  they  bap- 
tized many  who  had  not  been  through  the 
regular  course  of  instruction  and  testing, 
which  accounts  for  the  large  percentage 
mentioned  above.  Over  100  Basle  confes- 
sors were  re-written  and  some  300  were  also 
written  that  had  confessed  since,  the  Pres- 
byterian evangelists  began  work  there. 
Only  such  results  could  be  so  quickly  ob- 
tained in  a field  where  faithful  sowing  had 
been  going  on  for  years. 

The  people  of  this  tribe  are  not  lazy. 
They  have  a great  zeal  in  building  houses 
of  worship.  In  every  place  we  visited  there 
was  a nice  building  erected,  and  an  enthusi- 
astic body  of  Christians.  The  churches  in 
this  district  are  made  of  clay  on  a frame 
construction,  and  then  painted  on  the  out- 
13 


side  with  a coating  of  white  clay,  which 
makes  a very  neat  appearing  building.  The 
seats  made  of  split  logs  on  posts  were  also 
nicely  arranged.  I wish  our  Christians  at 
home  could  hear  them  sing — such  volume 
and  earnestness  withal. 

I know  of  no  other  tribe  that  has  so  many 
native  medicines  and  fetishes  as  the  Mvele. 
When  I was  leaving  I came  to  a town  about 
noon  and  asked  for  the  headman  of  the 
town,  as  I wished  to  get  some  food  for  my 
boys.  Upon  being  told  that  a white  man 
wished  to  see  him,  he  went  first  and  washed 
his  hands  in  a weed  that  was  supposed  to 
make  the  white  man  friendly.  My  boys  in 
their  zeal  pulled  up  his  medicine  and  he 
came  to  me  empty  handed  to  complain 
about  their  act.  I did  speak  somewhat 
crossly  to  the  headman  because  he  did  not 
bring  the  required  food  and  refused  to  hear 
anything  about  the  boys  until  the  food  was 
delivered.  He  went  back  and  got  the  food 
and  was  paid  for  the  same.  We  parted 
friends.  I have  wondered  if  he  still  believes 
in  his  medicine. 

In  many  places  along  the  way  one  can 
see  well-built  towns  deserted  because  of  the 
advice  of  some  medicine  man.  They  make 
“medicine”  to  find  out  when  they  are  going 
to  die,  to  know  whether  they  should  go  on 
a journey  when  they  wish  to  go  hunting,  in 
fact,  for  practically  everything.  Other 
tribes  make  “medicine,”  but  I know  of  no 
other  tribe  that  makes  it  so  openly  as  the 
Mvele. 

The  last  week  of  October  I went  again 
to  the  Mvele  country  for  a Communion 
service.  Four  members  of  the  Session  of 
the  Lolodorf  Church  went  with  me  to  exam- 
ine those  who  were  to  unite  with  us.  One 
Elder  of  the  Basle  Church,  after  being  ex- 
amined, was  asked  to  sit  with  us  in  confer- 
ence. Fifty-one  were  accepted  as  worthy 
to  partake  of  the  Communion  after  exam- 
ining over  twice  as  many  in  the  two  days. 

14 


An  audience  of  over  700  gathered  on  Sun- 
day morning,  at  which  time  they  also  made 
an  offering  of  120  marks.  The  number  of 
confessors  had  increased  another  300  in  the 
three  months  between  my  two  visits.  One 
man  in  this  land,  when  he  confessed,  put 
away  eight  wives  and  became  a Christian 
with  the  ninth.  In  the  course  of  the  next 
month  he  led  three  others,  older  than  him- 
self, to  Christ.  My  bicycle  broke  on  this 
trip,  and  I had  to  walk  over  a hundred 
miles,  but  I enjoyed  it. 

Last  Communion  I baptized  167  at  the 
five  communion  points,  advanced  494  into 
the  first  Catechumen  Class  and  wrote  nearly 
1000  confessors.  There  are  over  1200  in 
the  village  schools,  most  of  which  are 
larger  than  usual,  but  the  tuition  is  lower. 
Our  work  is  going  forward  in  spite  of  the 
things  of  this  earth — changes  of  govern- 
ment and  frequent  changes  of  those  who 
have  the  work  in  charge. 


Studying  by  Candle  Light  in  New  Dormitories 


15 


ELAT 


During  the  months  of  December,  1915, 
through  February,  1916,  the  members  of 
the  station  were  for  the  most  part  absent. 
On  December  11,  1915,  the  German  Govern- 
ment sent  an  order  commandeering  the 
buildings  of  the  Industrial  school  for  the 
purpose  of  making  munitions  of  War.  The 
missionaries’  reply  was  that  they  refused 
to  occupy  the  other  buildings  of  the  station 
if  the  Government  should  take  possession. 
As  a result  all  of  the  Mission’s  buildings 
were  commandeered  by  the  Government.  On 
receiving  the  order  we  at  once  prepared  our 
property  and  the  things  we  were  leaving, 
for  our  absence,  and  on  January  3,  1916, 
left  the  station,  two  of  the  force  remaining 
in  a nearby  town  in  order  to  care  for  the 
interests  of  the  Mission  and  the  people 
connected  with  the  Mission  and  the  remain- 
der of  the  force  going  to  Metet.  After 
the  taking  of  Elat  by  the  French,  January 
22d,  Mr.  Fraser  and  Mr.  Dager  returned  to 
the  station,  finding  it  littered  with  rubbish 
and  small  shelters  erected  by  the  refugees 
of  whom  there  were  about  3,000  still  on  the 
place.  By  February  7,  all  the  missionaries 
had  returned  with  the  exception  of  the 
Krugs,  and  were  doing  their  best  to  clean 
and  straighten  the  place  and  again  start 
the  work  which  had  so  suddenly  been 
brought  to  a close.  The  damage  to  our 
property  consisted  mostly  of  the  destruction 
of  the  gardens,  the  damage  to  the  buildings 
and  the  littering  of  the  property. 

THE  CHURCH  AT  ELAT 

While  the  European  nations  have  been 
pitting  black  man  against  black,  and  the 
white  men  upon  whom  the  people  had  here- 
tofore looked  as  representing  law  and  order 
and  peace  had  turned  to  killing  each  other, 
the  Church  has  stood  as  a lighthouse  point- 
ing out  the  way  to  better  things.  The 
16 


evangelists  have  been  able  to  remain  at 
their  posts,  with  the  exception  of  a few 
weeks  as  the  Germans  withdrew  on  the 
arrival  of  the  French  and  English  forces. 

But  Satan  has  had  a splendid  opportunity 
to  work  and  has  left  his  mark  upon  the 
church.  Not  only  have  the  ordinary  re- 
straints been  removed,  making  it  easy  to 
fall  into  sin,  but  people  have  been  taken 
from  their  homes  as  carriers  and  women 
have  ofttimes  become  a spoil  for  black  sol- 
diers, so  that  we  rather  marvel  at  the  way 
God  has  kept  His  church  through  it  all. 
The  advanced  catechumen  class  received  an 
addition  of  1,123  persons,  while  2,892  were 
added  to  the  roll  of  those  who  have  con- 
fessed Christ  during  the  year.  It  was 
feared  at  the  beginning  of  the  war  that  the 
church  offerings  would  decrease.  But  in 
this  we  were  mistaken.  The  offerings  this 
year  at  Elat  have  been  larger  than  ever 
before.  Chapels  are  being  built,  Bible- 
readers  have  been  paid  and  the  church  at 
Elat  is  helping  the  Batanga  church  to  re- 
pair their  church  building,  which  was  dam- 
aged by  the  war.  Twelve  young  men  also 
have  given  themselves  to  the  Gospel  min- 
istry, have  been  accepted  by  the  session  and 
will  be  recommended  to  presbytery  at  its 
next  meeting.  There  are  twenty-two  mem- 
bers of  the  Elat  church  looking  toward  the 
ministry,  and  there  is  a pressing  need  for 
them. 

It  has  been  impossible  for  the  church  to 
push  its  work  into  the  region  beyond,  as  it 
had  begun  to  do  before  the  war,  but  while 
the  Bible  readers  have  all  been  withdrawn 
from  the  new  Cameroun,  south  of  the 
Campo  river,  the  fact  that  the  people  from 
that  region  have  recently  been  asking  that 
they  be  sent  back  shows  that  the  work 
already  done  in  that  field  has  begun  to  bear 
fruit.  The  112  Bible  readers  scattered  over 
the  country  had  a splendid  effect  on  the 
people  during  the  time  they  were  without 
government  control.  The  mutineers,  black 
17 


soldiers,  who  had  broken  away  from  the 
German  army,  with  their  guns  and  ammu- 
nition, as  a rule  respected  the  Bible  readers 
and  made  them  no  trouble.  During  the 
interim  between  the  two  governments  there 
was  a great  deal  of  lawlessness.  The  peo- 
ple who  were  not  Christians  said  that  God 
had  gone  and  that  there  would  be  a new 
god  come  after  a time;  but  the  fact  that 
the  evangelists  were  at  their  posts  preach- 
ing the  Gospel  as  usual  went  far  to  dis- 
abuse the  minds  of  the  people  of  the  idea 
that  God  had  left  them  and  they  could  do 
as  they  pleased. 

The  generally  unsettled  condition  of  af- 
fairs throughout  the  country  has  had  its 
effect  on  the  school  work.  The  tuition  re- 
ceived has  been  much  less  than  in  previous 
years,  while  in  a number  of  places  the 
teachers  had  to  flee  from  their  posts  as  the 
Germans  withdrew  and  in  the  looting  that 
followed  by  the  black  soldiers — quite  a 
quantity  of  school  supplies  were  lost. 
Although  far  from  self-supporting,  it  has 
been  worth  a great  deal  to  the  villages  to 
have  them  in  operation,  as  it  gave  the 
people  confidence  at  a time  when  govern- 
ment control  was  lacking. 

Although  the  medical  work  was  closed 
for  a part  of  the  year  at  the  time  of  the 
evacuation  of  Elat,  many  sick  and  injured 
were  turned  over  to  the  Mission  for  aid. 

Addendum. 

RAPID  PROGRESS  AT  ELAT 

The  rapid  progress  made  at  the  Elat  Sta- 
tion is  seen  in  a letter  from  Elat  dated  April 
22,  1917,  describing  the  visit  of  the  new 
Governor  of  Cameroun  to  the  station: 

The  Captain  of  this  district  brought  the 
new  Governor  of  South  Cameroun  to  visit 
the  station.  We  took  him  first  to  the  indus- 
trial school  and  showed  him  the  chair  class 
at  work  on  all  kinds  of  furniture.  Right 
18 


from  the  first  I could  see  his  surprise.  He 
was  not  looking  for  such  work.  He  exam- 
ined the  chairs,  tables,  sofas  and  other  odd 
pieces  with  great  interest.  He  did  not  seem 
to  understand  how  such  work  was  possible 
from  these  natives.  I presented  him  with 
a chair  and  a mahogany-topped  table. 

We  went  then  to  the  hat  class,  where  he 
saw  the  different  kinds  of  hats.  He  was 
greatly  interested  in  the  tropical  helmets 
we  were  making,  and  examined  them  in  all 
the  different  stages.  To  see  these  helmets 
as  neatly  made  and  as  strong  as  the  aver- 
age European-made  article,  and  made,  too, 
by  black  boys  and  in  a mission,  seemed  to 
be  too  much  for  him. 

Then  we  went  to  the  tailor  class,  where 
another  surprise  awaited  him.  He  carefully 
examined  the  clothing,  some  of  it  as  good 
as  that  he  had  on.  We  could  see  a change 
in  his  attitude  toward  us.  Next,  to  the 
room  where  six  boys  were  working  in  ivory 
and  ebony.  I gave  him  an  ivory  and  ebony 
cane.  From  there  we  went  to  the  press- 
room, where  he  saw  work  that  was  being 
done  for  the  government,  and  a small 
French  primer  for  the  French  schools. 
Then  we  went  into  the  industrial  school 
office,  where  he  saw  the  walls  and  ceiling 
and  all  of  the  furniture  made  of  mahogany. 
We  went  then  to  the  sawmill  and  from 
there  to  the  blacksmith  shop,  where  the 
boys  were  repairing  an  automobile.  Then 
we  went  to  the  carpenter  shop.  . We  could 
see  that  the  man  was  completely  taken 
aback. 

We  then  went  up  to  our  home,  where 
Mrs.  Hope  had  prepared  refreshment. 
Then  came  the  next  surprise.  The  walls  of 
different  kinds  of  mahogany  and  other 
beautiful  African  woods,  set  him  gazing. 
I called  his  attention  to  the  fact  that  the 
whole  house  and  all  the  furniture  in  it  was 
made  by  the  boys  in  the  carpenter  class  he 
had  just  seen. 


19 


By  that  time  he  was  willing  to  joke  with 
us.  The  Captain  asked  if  that  gramaphone 
was  not  made  in  the  industrial  school.  I 
assured  him  it  was,  and  as  I saw  the  Gov- 
ernor looking  at  a bookcase  made  of  teak- 
wood,  full  of  books,  I laughingly  told  him 
that  those  books  were  printed  on  the  Mis- 
sion press.  By  this  time  he  was  full  of 
coffee  and  American  cake,  and  really 
seemed  to  be  enjoying  himself. 

After  a while  he  said  it  was  time  he  was 
getting  back  to  the  government  station. 
We  told  him  he  had  not  seen  the  Mission 
yet,  but  only  a little  sideline.  We  then 
showed  him  the  girls’  school,  and  afterwards 
the  French  school.  He  forgot  all  about  his 
purpose  in  coming  down  to  put  out  the 
large  boys,  and  never  said  a word  about  it. 
Then  he  was  taken  to  the  big  church. 
When  he  saw  a building  that  would  seat 
4000,  he  ventured  the  question:  “Was  it 

ever  full?”  When  told  that  there  had  been 
as  high  as  4000  on  the  outside  that  could 
not  get  in,  that  finished  him.  As  we  were 
walking  to  his  horse,  he  said:  “You  have  a 

blessed  work  here  with  these  native  people.” 
Then,  on  leaving,  he  said  to  Mr.  Johnston: 
“I  am  greatly  pleased  with  what  I have 
seen  here,  and  if  at  any  time  I can  be  of 
service  to  you  in  your  work,  you  have  only 
to  command  me.” 

The  Governor  went  from  here  to  Yaunde, 
where  he  makes  his  headquarters,  and  a few 
days  after  he  was  located  he  gave  a dinner 
for  the  white  men  of  his  immediate  district. 
At  that  dinner  he  made  a speech  in  which 
he  was  full  of  praise  for  the  American 
Mission  and  especially  for  the  industrial 
school.  He  spoke  of  the  “wonderful  work” 
being  done  in  that  school. 

I must  not  close  without  saying  some- 
thing of  the  church.  Elat  church  has  taken 
a new  step  lately  that  is  quite  striking. 
Mr.  Johnston,  during  the  first  part  of  the 
year,  visited  and  held  communion  at  eleven 
different  out-stations,  and  at  seven  of  these 
20 


organized  churches.  There  could  be  a book 
written  about  those  meetings  and  the  organ- 
ization of  those  seven  churches,  but  I will 
not  try  to  write  it.  I just  want  to  give  you 
a few  points  of  interest. 

I have  heard  the  complaint  against  the 
ministers  at  home  that  they  padded  their 
rolls.  Well,  I will  venture  a guess  that 
there  is  not  a church  in  the  States  that  can 
duplicate  this:  Elat  had  630  names  on  her 

session  minutes  that  had  never  been  placed 
on  her  rolls,  hence  never  reported  in  the 
General  Assembly  Minutes.  In  other  words, 
she  had  600  members  more  than  she  had 
reported.  Elat  pastors  could  hardly  be 
accused  of  padding. 

At  the  organization  of  the  seven  churches 
there  were,  including  preparatory  meetings, 
85  meetings  attended  by  54,000.  At  the 
Sunday  meetings  the  attendance  was  over 
20,000.  About  650  were  baptized  at  these 
meetings. 

The  chui'ches  organized  were  as  follows: 
Members  Members 

Biba  132  Ngomeden  ....784 

Nlupesa  475  Asok  250 

Mejap  460  Tyanga  296 

Endam 600 

This  leaves  Elat  church  with  a member- 
ship of  2,634.  If  these  places  had  not  been 
organized  into  separate  churches,  Elat’s 
membership  would  now  be  over  5630.  If 
Fulasi  is  counted  in,  it  would  bring  Elat’s 
membership  up  to  near  the  8000  mark.  In 
other  words,  where  there  was  not  a con- 
fessing Christian  eighteen  years  ago,  only 
heathen,  there  are  today  8000  church  mem- 
bers in  good  and  regular  standing,  and  more 
than  twice  that  number  on  the  waiting  list. 
Where  over  18  years  ago  there  were  no 
Christians,  there  are  now  over  25,000. 
Where  sixteen  years  ago  there  was  no 
church,  there  are  now  nine  churches,  with 
a total  membership  of  about  8,000. 

A little  over  a year  ago,  at  home,  it  was 
no  uncommon  thing  to  find  a man  strug- 
21 


gling  along  with  a small  church  in  a small 
town  with  several  other  churches  of  other 
denominations  likewise  struggling.  To  see 
those  ministers,  and  the  minister  here  with 
eight  churches  and  three  other  communion 
centers  and  about  12,000  on  his  hands  and 
with  125  native  helpers  to  look  after,  the 
contrast  is  too  great.  THERE  SEEMS 
TO  BE  SOMETHING  WRONG  SOME- 
WHERE. 


METET 


God  has  been  wonderfully  good  to  us  and 
to  the  people  among  whom  we  labor.  We 
were,  perhaps,  the  most  untouched  by  the 
ravages  of  war.  We  suffered  not  at  all 
from  the  want  of  proper  food.  We  were 
privileged  to  minister  to  many  Europeans, 
both  officials  and  missionaries  of  various 
nationalities,  and  our  hill  was  a haven  of 
refuge  for  the  frightened  natives  during 
the  change  of  regimes. 

The  attendance  at  church  services  has 
kept  up  well,  and  on  communion  Sundays 
has  even  reached  the  2,000  mark.  Eight 
Bible  readers  and  24  school  boys  have  done 
work  in  the  outlying  regions  for  their 
food  money  and  have  done  well.  The  col- 
lections have  been  good,  considering  the 
confusion  and  uncertainties  of  the  war. 
Only  one  month  did  they  fall  below  the 
self-support  mark,  while  the  aggregate  has 
been  sufficient  to  pay  all  expenses. 

In  the  Yebekole  region  it  has  been  im- 
possible to  have  any  missionary  oversight, 
and  the  work  has  been  carried  on  by  a 
teacher  and  Bible  reader,  but  our  houses 
have  remained  intact  and  a few  faithful 
ones  are  holding  on.  Two  Bible  readers 
have  recently  been  sent  to  gather  up  the 
scattered  ends  and  keep  the  work  going 
until  such  time  as  a school  can  be  started. 

There  has  been  considerable  difficulty  in 
arranging  a course  in  the  schools  which 
would  appeal  to  the  boys  and  be  of  real 
service  to  them,  as  it  was  believed  not  to 
be  best  to  teach  a foreign  language,  that 
pet  of  all  the  natives,  not  knowing  what 
nation  would  claim  the  land  at  the  close 
of  the  war.  The  first  term  of  the  year, 
March,  there  was  an  enrollment  of  210. 

23 


Mr.  Oxas,  of  the  Gossner  Mission,  having 
to  close  the  new  work  in  which  he  and 
a colleague  were  engaged  in  the  Mekae 
country,  came  to  Metet  to  await  the  out- 
come of  the  war  and  assisted  in  the  Boys’ 
school.  The  weekly  allowance  of  salt  had 
to  be  discontinued  owing  to  its  scarcity,  but 
the  boys  seemed  to  appreciate  the  situation. 
The  42  village  schools  were  flourishing  until 
the  mutineers  came  through  the  district  in 
July,  1915.  The  more  remote  of  the  schools 
were  closed.  Nearly  all  were  closed  when 
the  war  zone  reached  Metet  in  January, 
1916. 

The  definite  policy  for  industrial  work, 
laid  out  by  the  Mission  in  September,  1914, 
has  been  persistently  carried  out.  The  ex- 
perimental cocoa  garden  and  the  palm 
orchard  have  done  very  well.  While  the 
cocoa  and  the  1025  plantains  set  out  to 
give  the  young  cocoa  trees  shade  have  been 
growing,  a crop  of  cassava  and  two  of  corn 
have  been  harvested  from  this  cleared 
ground,  and  a third  crop  of  corn  is  growing. 

The  school  supplies  are  so  scarce  that  one 
torn  and  thumb-worn  book  must  do  service 
for  four  or  five  pupils  in  the  Girls’  schools. 
Their  interest  and  progress  are  encourag- 
ing, and  though  there  are  no  attractions 
such  as  sewing  and  salt  to  offer,  they  are 
contented. 

For  the  first  time  native  goats  have  been 
furnishing  fresh  milk  to  the  missionaries  at 
Metet.  Not  much  milk  from  a goat,  to  be 
sure,  but  given,  say  fifteen  to  a family,  they 
could  have  fresh  milk  the  year  round. 


Addendum. 


THE  GROWTH  AT  METET 

The  missionary  writes: 

April  8th  was  Easter  at  Metet,  West 
Africa.  You’d  never  have  known  it  had 


The  Old  Hark  School-house 


The  New  Brick  Galvanized  Iron  School-house — 
Bricks  made  by  School  Boys 


I 


25 


you  looked  for  the  new  Spring  styles  of 
hats.  But  it  must  have  been  Easter  in  the 
hearts  of  the  500  who  had  come  to  the 
house  of  God  for  their  “heart’s  helping,” 
for  I have  never  heard  a service  cause  peo- 
ple to  leave  as  quietly  as  they  did  yester- 
day, never  in  the  years  I have  been  here. 
Perhaps  the  stirring  of  hearts,  the  awaken- 
ing of  souls  to  a reaching  out  for  more  of 
the  Spirit  of  God  is  beginning.  We  have 
prayed,  hoped,  longed  and  worked  for  this 
for  many  a month. 

The  letter  notifying  us  of  the  gift  for 
extension  work  among  the  tribes  to  the  East 
was  received,  and  you  may  believe  we  felt 
like  running  to  the  boys’  town  and 
beating  the  tom-toms  and  having  a royal 
old  dance,  native  style,  too,  when  we  read 
it!  God  has  answered  the  prayers  of  His 
children  up  in  that  land,  for  we  know  what 
has  been  the  burden  of  their  pleading  for 
a long  time.  Praise  His  name!  Now  they 
are  expecting  some  of  us  up  there  “one 
time,”  which  is  the  equivalent  for  “at  once.” 
How  do  they  know  of  it?  On  this  wise: 
they  were  here  last  week.  “Get  the  guest 
house  ready  for  us,  we’ll  need  it  all,  for 
there  are  many  of  us  coming,”  read  the 
note  sent  by  our  teacher,  Nkulu,  on  Wed- 
nesday. Right  he  was,  for  he  and  the 
Emini  teacher  brought  down  together  al- 
most 200  of  their  people,  a five  days’  walk 
coming  and  the  same  to  return,  carrying 
their  own  food,  clothes  and  bedding.  I felt 
that  our  bit  of  time  had  been  well  spent 
up  in  that  region  when  I saw  the  Omvang, 
Yebekole,  Mekae  and  whatever  other  clan 
representatives  there  may  have  been  among 
them,  here  at  Metet. 

Even  the  angels  must  have  rejoiced  when, 
on  Sunday  morning,  twenty-nine  new  mem- 
bers were  baptized  and  taken  into  the 
Church.  Not  many  in  comparison  with 
other  stations  in  the  Mission,  but  well  done 
26 


for  Metet.  Among  these  new  members 
were  five  Yebekole  and  Mekae.  And  then 
there  were  advanced  from  the  first  to  the 
second  year  class,  sixty  people.  To  witness 
this  event  there  were  present  almost  3,000. 


PRIMITIVE  METHODS 

There  seems  to  be  a sort  of  a slump  in 
village  school  work,  most  likely  due  to  the 
fact  that  this  is  the  fourth  term  we  are 
trying  to  run  without  slates,  pencils,  books 
and  other  supplies.  It’s  hard  on  the  young- 
sters to  have  to  use  a stick  or  their 
fingers  to  trace  letters  in  the  dust 
of  a school  floor.  While  up  at  Yebekole 
I wondered  why  the  boys  were  having  recess 
so  early.  On  investigating,  found  about 
sixty  boys  out  in  the  street,  taking  their 
writing  lesson  in  the  sand.  And  it  is  the 
same  evei’ywhere,  even  here  at  Metet.  Mrs. 
Schwab  and  I worked  out  a small  booklet 
to  replace  the  charts  or  supplement  them, 
as  one  saw  fit  or  could  obtain  cloth  to  re- 
place worn-out  charts,  no  easy  task  these 
days.  The  2,500  edition  was  used  up  in 
about  two  or  three  weeks. 

On  May  13th  was  the  monthly  contribu- 
tion Sunday  at  Metet  Station,  West  Africa. 
Despite  the  rain,  we  had  over  1,200  to  listen 
to  the  Word  of  God.  I felt  shivery  for  them 
in  their  dress  of  bark  loin-cloth  or  grass 
bustle.  It  would  require  the  most  .optimistic 
and  philanthropically  inclined  rag-dealer, 
inspired  by  the  war  price  of  paper  stock,  to 
have  offered  $5  for  all  the  clothes  in  the 
church  on  the  persons  of  the  1,200.  We 
had  a good  time,  spiritually,  anyhow. 

We  are  finding  our  school  gardens  a great 
help  in  these  times  when  money  is  getting 
near  the  minus  place,  even  in  our  own  cash 
boxes.  One  hundred  and  eighty  pupils  can 
get  rid  of  quite  a bit  of  food  each  day.  We 


are  glad  to  be  able  to  give  them  such  a vari- 
ety. Bananas,  plaintains,  cassava,  pota- 
toes, avacado  or  alligator  pears,  sugar  cane, 
peanuts,  palm  nuts,  paw-paws,  pineapples, 
and  a few  more  things.  We  hope  to  have 
the  latter  two  or  three  for  a cent  next  year, 
and  not  as  dear  as  they  are  now,  one  cent 
each.  Avacado  pears  may  be  a luxury  in 
New  York,  but  they  are  six  for  a cent  here. 
We  have  just  set  out  nearly  100  more  trees. 
Our  cocoa  set  out  two  and  a half  years  ago 
is  already  in  bloom.  I hope  to  be  able  to 
scatter  the  seeds  of  it  all  over  the  district 
as  soon  as  fruit  is  ripe.  We  need  some- 
thing to  bring  prosperity  to  the  people. 
There  is  plenty  of  potential  wealth  in  palm 
nuts  and  oil,  but  not  yet  sufficiently  devel- 
oped. This  native  conservatism — not  what 
many  suppose  it  is,  i.  e.  indolence — is  the 
great  barrier  to  progress.  “Father’s  way  is 
good  enough  for  me.” 


THE  REGIONS  BEYOND 

We  are  hoping  that  some  one  may  be  able 
to  go  up  and  open  the  work  at  Yebekole 
some  day  ere  long.  Conditions  are  at  white 
heat  now.  If  we  do  not  take  hold  of  the 
place  very  soon  there  will  be  a reaction. 
My  Nkalu  reports  over  330  in  his  school. 
This  is  larger  by  far  than  our  present  en- 
rollment here  at  Metet.  There  is  an  ever- 
increasing  call  and  clamoring  for  evangel- 
ists and  teachers.  It  is  hard  to  sit  here 
when  such  calls  and  such  fields  await  one. 
Yet  we  can  have  a bit  of  our  share  in  it 
here.  It  is  a privilege,  after  being  here 
through  the  War,  to  see  the  hold  the  Gos- 
pel has  taken  on  men  as  everything  else 
they  had  believed  in  was  fast  disintegrating. 
We  saw  the  calm  of  those  threatened  with 
instant  death  if  they  would  not  consent  to 
violate  the  laws  of  God — some  of  them  died 
for  their  faithfulness  to  the  better  life  they 
28 


had  learned  to  lead.  We  witnessed  the  con- 
fusion as  the  retreating  and  approaching 
armies  swept  over  the  land.  We  were  par- 
ties to  the  slow  restoration  of  order  and  the 
readjustment  to  new  conditions.  Thank 
God  for  it  all.  Now  the  tribes  to  the  East 
are  as  thirsty  men  fighting  for  water, 
shouting,  fairly  yelling  for  the  Gospel.  It 
is  too  good  to  be  true.  It  is  more  than  we 
of  weak  faith  deserve. 


•29 


Addendum. 


FULASI 

In  1913,  at  Fulasi,  70  miles  east  of  Elat 
and  about  300  miles  east  from  the  coast,  an 
out-station  was  opened  by  the  West  Africa 
Mission.  It  has  recently  been  made  a full 
station  by  action  of  the  Board.  The  church 
at  this  station  was  organized  in  1914. 

Since  the  War  the  work  at  this  station 
is  forging  ahead  at  a pace  that  makes  it 
difficult  for  the  missionaries  to  keep  it 
under  control.  The  Rev.  W.  C.  Johnston 
writes  of  it: 

“It  reminds  me  of  an  old  horse  that  my 
brother  had  down  on  the  farm  when  I was 
home  on  furlough.  The  horse  did  not  look 
like  anything  worth  while,  but  she  had  been 
on  the  race  track  and  when  a buggy  drew 
up  alongside  of  us  to  pass,  she  took  the  bit 
in  her  teeth  and  went  off  at  a rate  that 
made  me  wish  I were  not  in  the  buggy. 
Fulasi  is  nothing  for  looks.  The  Loves  are 
living  in  a little  bark  house,  nine  by  twenty- 
four  feet,  that  is  worth  $25  and  could  be 
built  anew  for  $50.  The  house  occupied 
by  Mr.  Grieg  is  still  smaller  and  of  less 
value.  The  church,  which  will  hold  about 
1,000,  has  had  the  sides  removed  so  often 
to  accommodate  its  thousands,  that  it  is 
becoming  disreputable.  And  yet  it  is  al- 
most marvelous  the  work  that  is  controlled 
from  this  little  station.  Here  on  a Com- 
munion Sunday  the  audience  will  run  from 
three  to  four  thousand;  and  not  only  at 
Fulasi  do  we  have  these  large  audiences, 
but  around  about  this  station  from  20  to 
70  miles  are  four  other  Communion  cen- 
ters where  on  Communion  Sabbaths  there 
gather  from  three  to  four  thousand  people.” 

REMARKABLE  GROWTH  IN  THIS 
NEWEST  STATION 

May  7,  1917,  the  missionary  in  charge 
writes : 


30 


Even  though  these  are  busy  days,  I must 
take  time  for  just  a note  to  you.  We  are 
in  the  midst  of  Conference  for  our  evangel- 
ists. We  do  not  have  enough  missionaries 
so  that  one  man  can  have  a school  for  all 
of  the  evangelists,  so  it  is  up  to  the  one  in 
charge  of  the  church  to  call  in  his  evangel- 
ists if  they  are  to  be  called  in  for  a time 
of  refreshing.  In  having  our  Conference 
here  we  asked  all  of  our  evangelists  and 
their  wives  to  come  for  ten  days.  In  addi- 
tion to  our  regular  evangelists  our  Session 
has  selected  three  young  men  from  each  of 
our  six  communion  places  who  will  be  our 
new  evangelists.  These  men  and  their 
wives  are  here.  Of  our  one  hundred  and 
ten  regular  evangelists  all  but  two  are  here 
and  ninety  of  their  wives. 

Our  church  work  here  is  certainly  grow- 
ing. In  spite  of  the  fact  that  money  is 
very,  very  scarce,  our  collections  have 
fallen  off  only  about  one-fifth.  Our  church 
work  is  self-supporting.  It  has  been  neces- 
sary to  cut  our  evangelists’  wages  so  that 
they  are  kept  within  our  offerings,  but  the 
evangelists  did  not  cut  down  their  tithe 
money.  In  fact,  some  of  them  raised  their 
tithe  money,  so  that  many  of  them  are  now 
giving  more  than  one-tenth  of  their  wages 
back  to  the  church. 

At  some  of  our  communion  places  the 
church  buildings  were  in  need  of  repair. 
We  asked  the  people  to  erect  the  new  build- 
ings without  pay  and  they  have  responded. 
We  have  built  three  churches,  two  to  hold 
over  two  thousand  and  one  to  hold  over 
two  thousand,  five  hundred.  Next  month 
we  will  start  another  and  the  new  build- 
ing at  Endenge  is  the  wonder  of  the 
country.  When  we  got  there  for  our  last 
Communion  it  seemed  best  to  build  at  once. 
So,  on  Sabbath  it  was  announced  that  to- 
morrow we  would  start  the  new  church 
and  that  we  would  stay  over  two  weeks  to 
put  up  the  building.  On  Monday  morning 
31 


there  were  one  hundred  men  on  hand  and 
at  the  end  of  two  weeks  the  building  was 
up  and  ready  for  the  seats.  There  is  not  a 
nail  in  the  building;  we  used  bush-rope  to 
tie  the  sticks. 


OTHER  BUSY  DAYS  AT  THE  STATION 

During  the  second  half  of  the  year  I have 
built  a missionary  residence,  20  x 50  feet; 
a garage  and  dispensary,  a wash-house,  a 
tool  and  food  house,  a new  plank  house, 
evangelists’  and  school  teachers’  house,  a 
kitchen,  and  replaced  the  carpenter  shop — 
seven  buildings  in  all.  The  missionary  (a 
layman)  adds:  “I  have  not  done  all  the 

evangelistic  work  I would  like  to  have  done, 
but  where  I could  not  go  the  work  has  come 
to  me.  The  Communion  trips  have  taken 
away  the  ordained  missionary  here,  leaving 
me  to  occupy  the  pulpit  a little  more  than 
half  of  the  Sabbaths.  A number  of  the 
other  Sabbaths  I have  gone  out  to  the 
nearer  evangelist’s  towns.” 


32 


y 

Reconstruction 
In  West  Africa 

A GATHERING  TOGETHER 
OF  THE 

Reports  of  the  West 
Africa  Mission 

FROM 

May  1,  1916— April  30,  1917 


Revised  September,  1917 


Board  of  Foreign  Missions 
of  the  Presbyterian  Church 
in  the  U.  S.  A. 

156  FIFTH  AVENUE,  NEW  YORK  CITY 


Boys  at  Their  Desks  in  School 


Boys  Grading  for  New  School-house 


which  is  such  an  important  theme  in 
the  United  States  of  America  these 
War  days,  has  its  counterpart  in  the 
Metet  station  of  the  West  Africa  Mis- 
sion. “It  has  been  our  privilege,” 
writes  the  missionary,  “to  minister  to 
the  inner  man  of  the  members  of  our 
station.  To  do  this,  especially  during 
these  uncertain  times,  a large  vegetable 
garden  has  been  planted  and  nursed  in 
season  and  out  of  season,  and  ways  of 
making  native  food  attractive  and  pal- 
atable have  been  devised.  The  attempt 
has  resulted  in  a Cook  Book  which  has 
been  sent  to  the  housekeepers  of  the 
various  stations  for  suggestions.” 


STATIONS  OCCUPIED  BY  THE  PRESBY- 
TERIAN BOARD  IN  WEST  AFRICA 

SPANISH  GUINEA 

Benito:  77  miles  north  of  Baraka,  on 

the  coast;  occupied  as  a Station,  1864. 

CAMEROUN 

Batanga:  170  miles  north  of  Baraka,  on 

the  coast;  occupied  as  a Station,  1885. 

Efulen  : 57  miles  east  of  Batanga,  be- 

hind the  coast  belt,  and  180  miles  north- 
east of  Baraka;  occupied,  1893. 

Elat:  56  miles  east  of  Efulen  and  195 

miles  northeast  of  Baraka;  occupied  as  a 
Station,  1895. 

MacLean  Memorial  Station:  at  Lolo- 

dorf,  70  miles  northeast  of  Batanga  and  210 
miles  northeast  of  Baraka;  occupied  as  a 
Station  in  1897. 

Metet:  73.5  miles  northeast  of  Elat; 

occupied  in  1909. 

Fulasi:  70  miles  east  of  Elat;  occupied 

1916. 

MISSIONARIES  UNDER  APPOINTMENT 


Ordained  17 

Laymen  8 

Physicians — men 6 

Single  women 7 

Wives  of  missionaries 23 

61 

September,  1916.  Form  No.  2416 

Revised  September,  1917.  Form  No.  2553 


